Keurig

You find yourself at Keurig as VP Marketing in 2002-- a company with a great product but no brand recognition and only $25 million in sales

What do you do?

Well first…you develop great brewers that can be sold to Office Coffee Distributors for placement in workplaces around the country. You make sure they pitch Keurig by making the coffee pod 3 times more profitable per cup for the distributor than selling bagged coffee. Next thing you know Keurig is the lead on every sales call they make!

Next…you focus on the product line. The only brewer available is a large, expensive model that only makes sense for large offices--yet 80% of offices in North America have less than 15 people. So you develop a brewer line up that includes no frills entry level products and medium office brewers that have more features. Now with a "Good/Better/Best" product line distributors can place Keurig everywhere!

Meanwhile…why just stick with Office Coffee Distributors. Hmm…water distributors and office supply companies love delivering to the office why not them too? Sign up every bottled water guy available…and guess what…they sell 50% more of their water when they also have a coffee brewer in the office. Great water = great coffee. The office superstore guys—Staples and Office Depot—deliver toner and paper…why not coffee pods? Partnerships with all these distributors generates even more office penetration for Keurig.

Before you know it about 20% of offices in North America have Keurig….and millions of pods are used every day. Guess what? The office customers start asking for a Keurig for their home…and you are off to the races with Keurig At Home.

But…before you can penetrate the home…people have to know your brand. So you develop an opinion leader giveaway program focused on celebrities. Next thing you know…you are in the Golden Globes gift bag…then the Emmy Gift Bag…then the Critics’ Choice…and so on. Soon celebrities are singing Keurig praises….the brewer starts being shown in TV Shows…such as Desperate Housewives…and others. In Touch Magazine runs a story about how Keurig is creating Hollywood Buzz. The ball is rolling.

The At Home team at the company launches Keurig at retail. Sales take off because of the office trial and buzz on the product—not to mention fantastic home brewers they developed. Keurig becomes literally the hottest kitchen electric product of the decade…with almost 100% growth year after year.

While the At Home revolution starts you take over leadership of
www.keurig.com Eventually you build the web site to be one of the top 100 retail sites in North America—ranked Number 5 in customer satisfaction ahead of sites like Apple.com.

Result of all this?

Millions of brewers sold...and billions of pods. The company grows from $25 million …to over $5 billion in revenue. Keurig/Green Mountain stock (NASDAQ: GMCR) is the fastest growing stock of the past ten years resulting in a market cap of $20 billion.

Finally...the company asks you to lead the next generation of Keurig brewing—called Keurig 2.0. You lead a team to develop within a year the new 2.0 brewer line-up that starts hitting shelves in Fall, 2014. Keurig 2.0 totally relaunches the brand—including new capability to brew not only a single cup but also a carafe of coffee in a couple minutes. Another Keurig revolution takes place.

What is left to do? Time to retire and start helping other folks succeed!